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Marvel Glasses & Cups

You have any of these at home? Back in the mid-seventies you could buy Slurpees at 7-11 that came in Marvel superhero cups and sometimes glasses. How great is that? No other purchase required, but come on, you were really there for the comics, right?

I have several variations of these, with my earliest batch dating back to 1975. These cups simply had pictures of the characters. I got about a dozen of these and for some reason they’re mostly B-listers. As I recall in those days the clerk actually poured the Slurpee so you didn’t have a lot of control over what cup you got. I seem to remember trying to explain to a very patient clerk just what a "Quicksilver" -- a favorite character of mine at the time, for reasons long lost -- looked like.

The1977 cups are far more elaborate. I have about 30 of these including most every main Marvel character. Most of the big names (Spider-Man, FF, Hulk, etc.) Got two or three cups in this run.

Some of the cups had scenes pulled right out of the books themselves. The bitch’en factor went off the charts if you happened to own the book the picture came from. A No-Prize to the first person who can name what issue the FF scene was in.

According to this informative web site there are about 40 different cups total. I thought the writer’s comment that the X-men cup may be notable as possibly the first licensed appearance of the new X-men was plausible, given the climate for that sort thing at that time. Anyone know otherwise? I don't remember the DC cups. I would surely have increased my Slurpee intake for those as well.

I know one of the things I liked best about these was seeing so many of the lesser known characters on cups. (Which may be why I have so many B-listers from the 1975 batch.) It somehow validated collecting them knowing it wasn't just about Hulk and Spider-Man, although I'm sure a lot of kids were wondering who the heck Nova was.

So when does that ULTIMATE CHAMPIONS book come out anyway?

Not one but two Howard the Duck cups? Again, greatness. That cup on the right must not have been rinsed out, it’s pretty nasty inside; clearly root beer Slurpee residue. That was my favorite flavor - still is.

There were also some glasses issued with that 1977 set, using the same pictures as on the cups. I only have six of these but you’ll note they are in almost pristine condition. My Mom, bless her heart, suggested I hand wash them because she thought the screening might fade in the dishwasher. Mom’s are great too.   

I guess these have some collectible value, but so far I’ve resisted my wife’s pleas to put them on eBay. So they’ll stay boxed in the attic until I can find a fitting use for them. Or until we move. 

Honor Roll - Week of November 21, 2005

The Honor Roll is a weekly column where I rundown five interesting posts, comments or developments that are buzzing about the comics blogosphere. This isn’t about  events in the books themselves – we all know what happens there – merely a bit of navel gazing. Worse, it’s subject to my own myopic interpretation of what’s interesting or funny. Enjoy.

Boy, I’m kind of glad I didn’t run with my planned Thanksgiving post that was to include a certain JSA cover. But I hope everyone had a great holiday, nonetheless. Here’s this week’s Honor Roll:

5) I stopped reading JACK CROSS after the first issue but I’ve found myself in the odd position of actually rooting for it not to be cancelled just so I can read Jog’s monthly evisceration. (Note: scroll down a bit for this one.) Wup - nevermind, he's dropping the title too.   

4) The League of Melbotis gives us a sneak preview of a new Superman Returns action (?) figure. Somehow that picture makes me think the word “plush” should have been used.

3) Some time back Jim Roeg of Double Articulation fame posted a fascinating, if somewhat rambling, essay (and he’s one of the few in the comic blogoshpere who’s posts actually qualify as “essays”) on multiplicity as it relates to INFINITE CRISIS, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS and politics. This sparked a rejoinder from Marc Singer at I Am Not The Beastmaster. Both of which you’ve hopefully read. Jim’s now posted a follow-on to Marc’s post. I love this kind of stuff but recognize that it isn’t for everyone. If you’re looking for a little deeper than normal examination of the multiverse and what it might represent, I encourage you to read all three posts - although I’d recommend you pack a lunch.   

2) Last week saw the usual round of limitless goodness from Mike Sterling over at Progressive Ruin. It’s always hard to pick any one thing out Mike’s wonderful stream-of-linkiness posts, but I really enjoyed the links to old comic business news (especially the Comic Book Markup Language stuff – just what I need, something to tie my two geekish identities together) and the bit about cutting off the heads of toys to be returned. My sons would happily volunteer for that duty. My daughter would cry.   

1) Finally, a big post-Thanksgiving thanks to everyone who’s visited, commented and linked to this blog. You folks make it fun for me. 

Schematic Comics

Writer & Artist: Daniel Zettwoch

I bought this on a whim based on a recommendation from Jog and it may have been the best four dollars I spent on a comic this month. It’s a semi-autobiographical book by Daniel Zettwoch, containing a series of comic shorts, many of which have appeared in other places, although it’s unlikely you‘ve seen any of them.

Each piece has a unique charm to it that will likely resonate differently for everyone. “The Secret Society of Six Mile Lane” and “The Disappearing Man of Hill Behan” were entirely different in tone and theme and yet each struck a chord from my own past. That’s really the key to enjoying the book as the author draws extensively on his childhood for most of the stories. I’d guess most of us can find some common ground with Zettwoch, but even if you can’t the foundation was probably laid for you in any one of a hundred books, television shows or movies, and you should enjoy the humor and basic humanity of the stories.

The book itself is what I guess is called “pamphlet” sized -- essentially 8 ½ x 11 folded over -- with a thick cardstock cover. On my copy the ink from the front cover bled over to the inside, which somehow added to the character of the book. You can order your own copy here. (They take PayPal!) And if you’re lucky you’ll even get a little note from the author himself:

Bet you never got that from Brian Bendis.

Silent Dragon #4

Script : Andy Diggle
Art: Leinil Yu, Gerry Alanguilan

Andy Diggle is one of the few writers going whom I trust to successfully tell stories across multiple genres; space opera, military-industrial action/intrigue, or futuristic Shogun warriors - he always delivers. The trade-off is that you have to stay with it because nothing comes easy with Diggle. He's the master of teetering right on the edge of overplotting, without quite taking the plunge.

Despite a gut feeling that SILENT DRAGON would end up reading better in collected format, I began buying the monthlies. With the fourth issue my initial suspicions are confirmed. So what do I do now? I’m pot committed - in poker parlance - to the floppies so I’ll probably just buy the fifth issue, throw it on a shelf until the finale hits, and then read all six installments in one sitting.

Now mind you, this a very good series. Excellent almost. While there are moments when you wonder just who’s fighting who over what, the sense is that it will all tie up neatly - bloody, perhaps, but neatly. There’s a great deal of depth not only of plot but of characters and place. Diggle has created a new feudal Japan, populated with techno-warriors who speak of honor and loyalty and then slice their opponents to bits with cybernetic broad swords and polearms. To keep us on track Diggle provides the character of Suki as our stand in – as she learns, so do we. (And it’s good she has some redeeming quality as she’s wholly annoying beyond that.) It's an old trick, but much needed here.

The artwork in this book is marvelous. This series is my first extensive look at Yu’s work and it won’t be my last. (I’m tempted to pick up the SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT trade just for his art alone.) He has a clear love for depicting large, mechanical objects yet they never overwhelm the frame and his covers are practically frameable. 

So it's good. Pick it up in trade if you aren't following the periodicals. Maybe I’ll read the fifth and sixth issues when they come out and read the whole series again after that.

Honor Roll – Week of November 14, 2005

The Honor Roll is a weekly column where I rundown five interesting posts, comments or developments that are buzzing about the comics blogosphere. This isn’t about  events in the books themselves – we all know what happens there – merely a bit of navel gazing. Worse, it’s subject to my own myopic interpretation of what’s interesting or funny. Enjoy.

5) Not exactly comics related, but it’s time for a Yet Another Fantasy League update.  When last we visited on this I was 0-6. My worst ever start to a fantasy season of any kind, including that dopey fantasy golf league I let my cousin rope me into a few years ago. You’ll note that my team, Danger Limited, (renamed from: Danger Unlimited, for obvious reasons) has reeled off four straight wins to find itself in playoff contention (top eight go). I’ll need about 80 yards and two TD’s from Samkon Gado tonight to pull out the V this week. Guy has managed to displace me as King of the Cellar, but he did get the win this week.

4) Science geek that I am, I love this kind of stuff.   

3) This post at Howling Curmudgeons, and the subsequent comments, provides a fascinating look at the history of the graphic novel. One of the more interesting links from the comments was to this Stuart Moore article. Great stuff from Moore, except maybe for this:

Digression: Comics people have a tendency to think of book publishing as a stable, dignified field. In truth, it’s a pretty small, desperate world. Most trade and mass market books lose money, and book publishers habitually pounce on any fad that might bring in a bit of cash. Right now, they’re all over manga -- and mark my words: Inside of eighteen months, they’ll have that little bookstore section so glutted that individual title sales will drop like a rock.

The article is dated November of 2003.

2) The Comics Should Be Good Roundtable for All-Star Superman #1 and with its varying viewpoints is pretty much the definitive “review” for the book. And in addition to all the commentary goodness you’ll find there, the mystery (to those like myself who breezed through and didn’t pay attention) of why Clark de-cleated that pedestrian was solved. I just have one nit pick: why would monorail need a muffler? Are they putting internal combustion engines on those things?      

1) Ian Brill’s interview with Fan Boy Rampage’s Graeme McMillan is required listening. It will take an hour or so of your time, but it’s worth it, whether you frequented Fanboy Rampage or not. 

Comics By The Numbers – October 2005

ICV2 has released the sales estimates for October. You can read ICV2’s brief analysis of the numbers here.

Banking on Infinite Crisis

So the big news is INFINITE CRISIS #1 clearing the million-dollar mark for gross sales. Unit sales were just under 250K, placing it right in between the 261K posted by ALLSTAR BATMAN & ROBIN #1 in July and House of M #1 at 234K in June. Those are the only books so far in 2005 to crack the 200,000 mark in their first month – although COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS came close with just under that number back in March. Since IC #1 carried a $3.99 price tag it was able to breach the million-dollar mark.

These numbers, and the success of the two big crossover events, lead me to three conclusions:

1) Variant covers increase sales. No one seems to like variants and yet they account for as much as 10% of the sales of the top books. Moan and groan all you want about crass commercialism, but if there wasn’t a demand the publishers wouldn’t do it. And since it’s not your money being spent on fourteen variations of HOUSE OF M #1, why worry?   

2) Want to increase comic book revenues? Raise prices. As ICV2 notes, IC #1 was the first million dollar book since JLA/AVENGERS #1, which retailed for a whopping $5.95 (but only sold about 190,000 units in its first month). If IC had retailed for a dollar more how much would it have hurt sales? Obviously this is a big event book and one imagines most monthlies would suffer (to some degree) under the weight of a heftier price tag, but it seems clear that the core group of comic buyers will not be scared away by higher prices. When you note that nearly 5,000 copies of the $75.00 WATCHMEN: ABSOLUTE EDITION were purchased through the direct market and nearly six thousand copies of the hardcover GREEN LANTERN REBIRTH were sold at $24.99 per, publishers would have to conclude that some dollars remain on the table.

In economic terms, you’d describe the demand for any high profile comic as fairly inelastic since changes in price don’t seem to have a great deal of effect on units sold. However, I suspect the price bump does impact the total comics bought in a given month – more to come on this theory at a later date. 

3) The current ceiling for the debut issue of a big event comic is 250K (+/-10,000). But we knew that. Three books hitting that range in 2005 is the best we’ve seen at the top end since…at least 2001 – that’s as far back as ICV2’s on-line numbers go. That’s a good sign. The next book to reach this strata? Most likely ALLSTAR SUPERMAN. But I think it will take the Stephan King DARK TOWER book to actually raise the bar.

The DC Dead Pool?

At Newsarama Dan DiDio discusses some of the planned DC cancellations/changes.

PLASTIC MAN’s gone – no surprise since it rarely cracks the 10,000 unit mark.

FLASH, WONDER WOMAN and JLA all come to a halt – at least under their current banners. WONDER WOMAN is understandable – even with a strong IC tie-in the numbers were hovering around 50K (and below 30K prior to that). Although it seems unlikely that DC will allow one of their “Big Three” to go title-less for long. FLASH has pretty consistently hovered around the 50K mark and JLA has been a top 15 book for the better part of 2005, so the odds are pretty good we’ll see these titles again in some form. All-in-all a very suspicious development for the leads of the two individual titles.

SUPERMAN, ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN and ACTION COMICS will be reduced from three books to two. It sounds like the ADVENTURES book is getting dropped and SUPERMAN renumbered to account for the entirely of its run, but DiDio is being a bit coy on the actual goings on. Over the last six issues SUPERMAN has averaged about 68,000 units sold while AOS and AC have pulled in 52K per. Can we now expect the two remaining titles to become perpetual top 20 books? I’m guessing yes.

GOTHAM KNIGHTS and GOTHAM CENTRAL have been jettisoned along with BATGIRL. This seems largely aimed at culling the Batman herd. It looks like DC will try to funnel this traffic back to LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT, which could use the help. Perhaps even more so than the Superman titles, the Bat books seem to be poaching off each other, so this move is needed - although you could question the choice of axed titles.  With all the various Batman minis running around, I certainly wonder about the relevancy of LEGENDS.

House of M/Pre-Infinite Crisis Minis Update

Last time around I promised to look at the final Pre-Crisis and HOM numbers but they're still straggling in so I’ll wait another month to close that out. So far no big surprises -- solid numbers all around -- I think it will be more interesting to look at how the crossovers affected some of the regular monthly titles.

Odd and Ends

I’m still stunned about the GL REBIRTH hardcover book selling an estimated 5,892 units. That’s about 5,792 more than I would have guessed. Early Christmas shopping?...I’m largely ignoring the whole Spider-man/Other business, but the debut issue checked in at a healthy #5 overall…THE SENTRY limited run dropped over 30% from issue one (77,894) to issue two (53,384). This has been a pretty lackluster book – I won’t be surprised to see issue three drop well below the 50K mark…October marked the third time this year that at least four of the top ten books were miniseries. Number of times that happened in 2004? Zero. 

Batman and the Monster Men #1

DC Comics
Script: Matt Wagner
Art: Matt Wagner
Colors: Dave Stewart

Everything about BATMAN & THE MONSTER MEN screams retro. You can tell  Matt Wagner is itching to revisit the late 1930’s that he so successfully mined for his marvelous SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE run. Only the immutable laws of DC’s continuity seem to be preventing him from going there completely.

DARK MOON RISING is the operative theme, as this six issue mini, along with a planned second (BATMAN AND THE MAD MONK), examines what Wagner has referred to as stories from Batman year 1.5. These tales are designed to examine how Batman evolves from a masked vigilante out to cleanse the streets of Gotham to an actual superhero who battles all manner of monster. Fertile territory, and well suited to Wagner’s feel for the grim and gritty.

I struggled a bit with this first issue as I tried to reconcile the post-depression Gotham skyline, interiors and autos with the more modern touches -- thugs with ear rings, a tech-laden Batcave -- Wagner has sprinkled in. Maybe it was Wagner’s decision to incorporate these things, but they felt like a concession to continuity to an old curmudgeon like me. I guess, on a certain level I’m just sad that DC doesn't feel they can tell a Batman in the 30’s (or 40’s, or 50’s, or whatever) story. But this is a small quibble and I’m hopeful that as the series progresses this type of thing will be kept to a minimum.

A slightly larger issue is the multiple narrative voices. There are four unique points of view within the confines of this 22 page book, and while the transitions are relatively seamless the greater effect was to prevent any one voice from setting the tone or rising above the noise. I suspect this will play better when the story eventually reaches trade paperback.

Wagner's art adeptly captures the Golden Age feel, but it’s Dave Stewarts coloring that really distinguishes the book. Muted skintones, sepia and a very tempered use of shadows combine to provide exactly the right pitch for Wagner’s pencils.

It’s too early to make any kind of sweeping generalization about BATMAN AND THE MONSTER MEN, but I suspect this series is going to far outshine Steve Engelhart’s DARK DETECTIVE mini from earlier this year as well ALL STAR BATMAN & ROBIN. (Although the sales won't likely support this notion.) In fact, based on the parallels between Wagner’s book and the BATMAN BEGINS movie, one might make the claim that this book is better suited as an entry point for new Batman readers rather than Frank Miller’s ongoing train wreck. In any case, as fun as INFINITE CRISIS is, it's nice to have a solid Batman story to fall back to that isn't reliant on bigbrother satellites and the dynamics of the Justice League.    

Infinite Crisis – FanDad Speculation

I’m about to engage in some idle fandad speculation about INFINITE CRISIS outcomes. I’ve peeked ahead at some of the related covers and read the brief synopsis DC provides. If this sort of thing spoils fun a bit for you, feel free to bug out now.

Okay, now that we’ve seen (and presumably read) this:

And we all pretty much knew this was coming:

I suppose this isn’t too much of a surprise:

That’s the cover of Supergirl #5

Guess I’m going to have to pick up a few issues of Supergirl as this thing progresses. Based on the events of IC #2 and this little blurb for Supergirl #6:

There can only be one true Supergirl, and there's only one person who can help Kara win that title: Superman!

They've thrown down before, but now Superman has to stop Supergirl - even if it means the most unexpected death of all! Don't miss this special issue guest-starring Batman and Wonder Woman!

I’m assuming that Powergirl is the “mistress of might” who battles the new Supergirl in issue five. Hard to see who else would make sense. (And does this mean the two Superboys are going to duke it out somewhere?)

As to who dies, well I’ve already predicted that the current version of Wonder Woman dies and I’m not backing down from that. (Although I was clearly wrong about who Alexander Luthor was whispering to Earth-2 Superman about. Interestingly, most people -- besides me -- seemed to think he was referring to Powergirl but it’s fairly clear now that it was Lois. And I’m no longer sure about the return of Earth-2 WW – I’m now thinking Donna Troy may assume the WW mantle.) According to DC’s site WONDER WOMAN #226 will be that comic's last issue but while the timing is right, it hardly seems likely she would die in Supergirl’s book (but maybe) so I’m guessing one of the Supergirls eats the kryptonite bullet. But which one? And maybe this is where Earth 2 Lois dies. Or Superman. Or Lex. Or Krypto…or...

You know, I have to admit, I’m eating this stuff up. I originally saw the whole effort as one big, overstuffed plot truck, designed to get us from a place DC didn’t want to be in, to a newer, brighter, shinier place. And maybe that will be the end result, but so far IC has all the makings of a true comic classic. Sure, it has its WTF moments, a bit of overfeeding at the continuity trough and waaaaay too many OMACS (and you just know these guys are going to be popping up in books for decades to come) but so far it’s working really well. I’m having fun. I hope you are too.

“Hey Clark, Watch the Hand Checking”

You know, on a very remote level the whole Infinite Crisis thing becomes a discussion of what Batman has come to represent (the dark side of comics) versus what Superman represents. (Goodness and light and puppies.) And it seemed to my oldest son CJ (age 8) that DC was really taking the long way towards a resolution with all the mini-series, crossovers and whatnot.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an easy way to resolve this, like say, with a little one-on-one hoops action?

I'm told Superman absolutely owned Bats, 21-10, and that he wasn't allowed to fly. And it should be noted that all revisions took place before publication.

Honor Roll – Week of November 7, 2005

The Honor Roll is a weekly column where I rundown five interesting posts, comments or developments that are buzzing about the comics blogosphere. This isn’t about  events in the books themselves -- we all know what happens there -- merely a bit of navel gazing. Worse, it’s subject to my own myopic interpretation of what’s interesting or funny. Enjoy.    

I didn’t start this blog thinking there would be times where I’d go a full week between posts, but for whatever reason I had six clients last week who found their world coming to an end and only my company’s astonishing technical skills could save them. Or maybe that was what caused the problems to begin with. In any event, here we are, back with the Honor Roll.

5) Hey, now that Halloween is over it’s time to think about the number one cash draining holiday: Christmas. And since we all know how hard Batman is to shop for, Bully over at Comics Oughta Be Fun gives us Batman’s Amazon Wish List. Now originally I had planned on cooking up a little decompiler -- specialized for remote satellite software -- but that seems a little too utilitarian for this festive time of year, so now I’m leaning towards the Catwomen of the Moon video.

4) Comic Asylum’s James Meeley points out what has to be one of the few remaining potentially great match-ups in comics. I’ll admit to being a bit shocked it hasn’t been done already.

3) Lots of Crisis talk with the roll out of INFINITE CRISIS #2. The funniest post was this one by Tom O ‘Neil over at The Hurting, providing DC with some very solid character ideas for a post-Crisis DCU. I would definitely read Space Abraham Lincoln stories.

2) Heidi Meeley asks, How Pretentious Should Comics Be? in response to some schmuck who apparently complained about the, “low quality of reviews and musings done by other blogs.” That kind of criticism strikes me as being about as worthwhile as complaining about the color of someone else’s living room carpet. If you don’t like it, no one’s forcing you to go there.

1) There’s a fascinating thread over at Lea Hernandez’s LiveJournal (hat tip: Comics Worth Reading) regarding “MangaPods” - a TokyoPop promotional effort whereby scripts from actual books are given “dramatic radio play-style performances”. There’s a bit of a steam up over this because it seems the creators of the original works weren’t allowed input into how the books were read and (and to me this is an important “and”) TokyoPop is apparently releasing these before the books actually hit the shelves. Read the post and then ask yourself whose voice you hear when you read Batman, Superman, Spider-man, Wonder Woman, Wolverine, et al.  Or do you hear distinct character voices at all?